Cell Phones Cause Cancer?!?! (or I'll Give You My Cell Phone when You Take It from My Cold, Dead Hands!!!!)

I've remarked more than once upon the fact that we are becoming more and more dependent on our technological geegaws to the point that it seems they've acquired the status of virtual organs that we can only part with at the risk of our own lives. So it was with some interest that I digested the result of recent studies which states that radiation from cell phones may cause cancer.

After all, we live in a society where people are willing to pay 10-40% more for organically grown foods despite the lack of any scientific evidence of their health benefits.

What would such a society do when faced with the possibility that an almost ubiquitous piece of technological bling may cause cancer?

Frankly, I think we would seek solace in the security blanket that is denial.

We've become so dependent on cell phones, both in terms of the benefits and convenience of being able to do business 24/7 but also for the shear sense of security provided by being able to call up someone you know and discuss something completely trivial while waiting for someone outside, say, a movie theater, because the average person is too insecure to just be seen alone doing nothing but waiting.

Given these facts, if it turns out that cell phones do pose a serious health risk, I suspect that getting people to give them up would be a Herculean task. Seeing as how people cannot help talking on their cell phones while driving, an activity equivalent to downing half a bottle of vodka before going for a drive, something which even the most incorrigible alcoholic would be hard-pressed to describe as anything less than suicidal, I think you'd have an easier time convincing the general population that they should amputate their left thumbs.

For crying out loud, I've seen people texting, of all things, while driving on the 101, here in Silicon Valley. At least I assume they were texting. For all I know, they may have been playing Angry Birds while driving. Just who the Hell does this and thinks it's a good idea?

It seems that when it comes to cell phones, the average person's common sense just goes flipping AWOL which leads me to believe that a call to surrender one's cell phone prompted by irrefutable evidence of the cancer causing effects of cell phone radiation would probably elicit the following defiant response from the public at large.

Molon labe.